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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Opening Lead: ♦Q
In today's deal it is fortunate for North-South that South can open one spade in front of East. (If East were able to open one diamond, doubtless East-West would reach their cold game of five diamonds.) As it is, West does not have enough for the unusual two no-trump to show the minors, and North can then blow East out of the water with a jump to four spades.
The spade game appears very straightforward to make, when the defenders cannot arrange to take a heart ruff. West starts off with a top diamond lead, and you ruff, planning to draw trumps and claim. However the 3-0 trump break sets you back on your heels. You can draw a second round of trump if you want, but then you have to be careful. Suppose declarer ruffs a second diamond before playing clubs. If he does, then East will hop up with the club ace and play a third diamond, and now declarer cannot enjoy dummy’s clubs after drawing trump.
Declarer should realize that his best chance to make his game is that the defenders will not or cannot take a heart ruff. At trick three, instead of ruffing a diamond, declarer plays a top club from hand. East can win and does best to return a second diamond to force dummy to ruff. Declarer simply ruffs in dummy, unblocks clubs, then draws trump ending in dummy. He can now cash two clubs to pitch two losers and concede two heart tricks at the end.
Bid with the aces
Answer: 3NT
Many people use a two-club check-back by responder here to investigate opener's shape in more detail. I'm not convinced that approach is correct with this hand. Given all the side-honors in the unbid suits and a balanced hand, a simple jump to three no-trump looks practical and gives far less away.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
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